Nebraska Sovereignty and the Necessity of Balanced Federalism

Nebraska State Senator Tony Fulton has introduced LR292 to “Memorialize the United States Congress to adhere to the principles of federalism in accord with the Ninth and Tenth Amendments to the United States Constitution.”

LR292 is a non-binding resolution, but it used to a) bring the discussion of these essential principles to the public discussion and b) express the position of the legislature that the federal government is exceeding the extent of its constitutionally-delegated powers.

The language of the resolution, in many ways, expresses a solid constitutional position, including the following which invokes the words of James Madison:

WHEREAS, the framers of the United States Constitution envisioned a federal government with “few and defined” delegated powers, whereby state governments retained “numerous and indefinite” powers extending “to all the objects which, in the ordinary course of affairs, concern the lives, liberties, and properties of the people, and the internal order, improvement, and prosperity of the State;”

and

WHEREAS, a balanced federalism is necessary to preserve the inherent rights of the people, from whose consent the just powers of both state and federal governments are derived.

The resolution is part of a growing grassroots movement in state legislatures across the country as a protest to the intrusion of the federal government into state government affairs.

In 2009, 38 states introduced similar resolutions, and 7 states passed them, garnering some significant national media attention for these efforts. Already in 2010, at least ten states, most recently Wyoming and Rhode Island, have introduced sovereignty resolutions and “the next step,” nullification of specific federal laws, has been gaining traction in states around the country, too.